Few days back I was lucky enough to spend an enchanting evening with a charming young lady. (A privilege I seldom get!) She’s a twenty something woman with oodles of attitude, killer looks & a degree in law. Ok …now stop drooling.
But this post is not about my dazed babblings about the lady. It’s about some thing I realized that day, while walking beside her. The epidemic syndrome of male psyche- the MALE GAZE !!
While we were talking, sitting at a rooftop retreat of a city mall, I could feel a thousand eyes focused on us. Even though I knew that I was not the subject of those preying eyes, the experience was quite unnerving for a recluse like me.
It was then that I realized, with a sense of awe & disbelief that my friend was completely unaffected by it!! If being a cynosure was bugging her, she camouflaged it pretty well.
The question of whether a female gaze exists in contrast to the male one arises naturally. Mulvey, the originator of the phrase "male gaze", argues that "the male figure cannot bear the burden of sexual objectification. Man is reluctant to gaze...". Even if it does, from my experience I can say, it’s not as pervasive as its male counterpart !
[Photography by Toni Catany,"Formentera" (1969) ]
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